Google tries anonymously fighting eBay’s PayPal-only policy

Google may be the man behind the curtain when it comes to lodging anonymous …

Google may be behind one of the complaints against eBay Australia for its decision to accept only PayPal payments in the country. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission posts PDFs of its correspondences online, but it had not posted the name of the previously anonymous party. However, a curious reader did some digging into the metadata attached to the PDF, and discovered what appears to be Google's tie-in to the complaint.

But before we get into the Google connection, let's back up for a minute. Earlier this month, eBay announced that it would require all payments made through the popular auction site in Australia to be done through PayPal beginning June 17. This created a bit of an uproar, since not everyone likes being tied into a single payment system (that just so happens to be owned by eBay). It's not just users who were up in arms, either. Banks and other online payment services were unhappy with the move, saying that it would reduce competition and force users to either agree to the new terms or leave the market altogether. eBay responded by saying that going PayPal-only will make transactions safer, and that users are free to go elsewhere if they don't want to use PayPal.

A rather long list of individuals and organizations have already submitted their concerns to the ACCC, but Google's possible involvement makes the case that much juicier. As an eagle-eyed AuctionBytes reader (via Valleywag) discovered, the PDF was created from a Word document, the original title of which was "ACCC Submission by Google re eBay Public 2.DOC." The file was removed from the ACCC web site and then reposted, presumably to stuff the cat back into the bag and remove the Google reference.

The 38-page document (PDF) alleges that eBay's only purpose with the new policy is to "substantially lessen competition" by preventing others from competing with PayPal. "eBay's proposed conduct will result in significant public detriments including a reduction in consumer choice and a reduction in the overall quality of online payment processing services in Australia," reads the complaint. Google's objection comes as no huge surprise, as it operates PayPal competitor Google Checkout. Although Google Checkout is not quite as ubiquitous as PayPal, it has grown in popularity since launch and is often offered as one of the major alternatives to PayPal.

The ACCC said earlier this week that it plans to rule on the PayPal-only policy sometime in mid-June, before eBay Australia turns into a pumpkin on June 17.